Dissonant Destabilizing: Queering the Construction and Performance of Relational Norms

This thesis proposes ?dissonance? as a framework to intervene in queer theory. I specifically attend to theory on queer relationality and demonstrate the necessity of centering relating in discussions of queerness. I work to displace identity as the queer determinant in favor of a queer becoming and in process as demonstrated by Juana Mar?a Rodriguez. I first interrogate dissonance as a concept, developing its potential as a framework to hold contradiction, center relations, and invoke a durational temporality that leaves room for varying temporal logics. I use the family and the university as case studies through which I pull a dissonant analytic to destabilize relational norms. I argue for a queering that can be executed by both performing queer relations and queering constructions of relational norms. The ultimate goal of this thesis is twofold: 1) to destabilize normative relationality and gesture toward the titillating possibilities of a queer one, and 2) to propose and perform a dissonant framework that can converse with queer theory as a guide for interpretations and a generator for potentiality.